Rest Machining and Spring Wreath

[redwood]

So I have been trying out rest machining on the Spring Wreath download from Vectric and I don't seem to be getting any improvement. Now it may just be that there is so much detail in the whole carving that rest machining is not effective in this case. Can someone tell me differently?

I would like to think that the rest machining process would just go around the flowers and leaves and sharpen up the edges, but it seems to go over everything. I believe it cut a hour off of the time required if you just straight machined it using the smaller ball nose, but when you add the time of the first final cut using a larger ball nose, the total time is actually greater.

[highpockets]

Mark wrote up a check list for REST Machining that may help. Also I'd suggest going through the REST Machining tutorial again. Basically you have control of what areas you want to have machined in REST Machining by deleting the areas you don't want machined.


Legacy also did a nice video on REST Machining

[redwood]

I have watched all those videos (and them some) and printed out Mark's summary. I think? I know what I'm doing, but maybe not.

I follow the steps and I get vectors around all the leaves and flowers, so I'm thinking that rather then just cleaning up where the vectors are, it's going over the whole model.

[redwood]

I guess there are not any rest machining experts out there.

[Rcnewcomb]

Can you post some screen shots?

[redwood]

Not sure what screen shots would be helpful, but I'll try.

[Rcnewcomb]

Here is what my model looks like if I use a 0.25" ball nose bit. The dish area looks great but the dragon needs some additional detail.

When I create the component from the toolpath my 2D view on the left changes. The white areas are spots where a smaller tool could bring out more detail.

Next I turn off the Zero Plane and original 3D component so that only the toolpath component is selected. Again, the white areas are spots where a smaller tool could bring out more detail.

[Rcnewcomb]

Next I use the Trace Bitmap tool on the drawing tab.

I adjust the controls to give me reasonable areas that I want the small tool to machine. I use preview frequently to see how I am progressing.

This is roughly what I am looking for

[Rcnewcomb]

Then I turn the toolpath component off and turn the Model and Zero plane back on.

With just the vectors inside the oval selected I specify a 1/16" ballnose to machine those areas

The preview clearly shows what areas will be machined with the smaller tool

[Rcnewcomb]

Here is the preview with just the 1/4" ballnose toolpath

And then we run the smaller toolpath

On my machine the large bit would take an hour, and rest machining with the small bit would take another hour. = 2 hrs carving time.
If I did the whole project with just the smaller bit it would take 5 hours.

[redwood]

Thanks Randall, I will try running through it again. Still a lot of your time is saved by not needing to touch the bowl, with your smaller ball nose bit. The wreath doesn't have that luxury, but it does still seems like it is hitting more areas then it should.

[dwilli9013]

Wow Thanks Randall.
That string just cleared up every question I had for rest machining. I have a 17 hour cut coming up that will most definitely benefit from rest machining.
Thanks again this is exactly why I love this forum.

[Jim Sinacola]

Can you Rest Machine an assembly, from Design & Make?
I have taken the Chef Assembly for D&M and applied the steps for RM but it looks terrible.

[Adrian]

It doesn't matter what the source of the model is. Once it's in Aspire it's an Aspire component and all techniques/tools apply.

From what I'm aware all D&M models are designed to machine with a 1/8" bn bit at about 6" size so you should only need a smaller bit if you're going a lot smaller than that.

[armbrusterco]

Great step by step example and illustrations, Randall. Thanks much.